TED2011: Smiling Makes the World Go Round

If you ever needed someone to make the case for why it’s important to smile, think of today’s talk by Ron Gutman at TED University. (That’s a short series of presentations by TED conference participants.)

Another study found that the size of major league baseball players’ smiles in their trading-card photos predicted longevity. Players who didn’t smile at all lived an average of 72.9 years, those with some semblance of a smile lived 75 years and those with a “beaming smile” lived to be nearly 80.

Some other fun factoids: smiling is contagious, and children do it as often as 400 times a day, says Gutman. In brain studies, a smile stimulates the brain as much as 2,000 bars of chocolate and lowers stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline and while boosting positive ones, he says.